Brazil healthcare

Brazil’s Intermédica seeks clearance for public listing

June 1st 2017 | Brazil | Provision | Intermédica

Notre Dame Intermédica Sistema de Saúde SA, a Brazilian healthcare services provider, is seeking regulatory approval to launch an initial public offering (IPO), according to a Reuters report on May 29th. The company is seeking only to sell its outstanding common shares and has not mentioned any fresh issuance.

Notre Dame Intermédica is one the largest health care providers in the country, employing about 14,000 people and serving more than 3.6m beneficiaries across more than 5,000 client companies. According to media reports, the IPO was initiated by its owner, Bain Capital, as it seeks to benefit from high demand for Brazilian healthcare stocks. Unibanco Holding SA's investment banking unit will act as one of the underwriters for the offering.

Bain took control of Notre Dame Intermédica in 2014. Since then, the healthcare company has used a series of acquisitions to bolster its portfolio of clinical centres and hospitals. It acquired Grupo Santamália Saúde, a healthcare service provider, in 2015, and bought a portfolio, including a hospital, five clinical centres and two emergency care units, from Unimed ABC the following year. So far this year, the company has agreed to acquire three hospitals—Samci Hospital, Hospital São Bernardo and Hospital Nova Vida.

The Economist Intelligence Unit expects healthcare spending to rise by 7% in local-currency terms to R750bn (US$197bn) by 2021. Overall healthcare spending is likely to account for about 9% of the country's gross domestic product over the next four years.